Skills providers can help firms tap into economically inactive talent

Across multiple sectors, UK employers face critical skill shortages that traditional recruitment channels can no longer address effectively.

Meanwhile, a significant workforce remains on the sidelines – the economically inactive population that has grown substantially since the pandemic. This misalignment represents both a challenge and an opportunity for businesses to pioneer approaches that solve staffing problems while addressing wider social challenges.

The economic inactivity rate for those aged 16 to 64 stood at 21.5 per cent between November and January 2024, with 9.27 million people classified as economically inactive. Many of these individuals possess valuable skills and experience but encounter barriers to workforce re-entry. This population represents a significant untapped resource for companies with positions to fill.

Long-term unemployed individuals can be supported in returning to work by developing training programmes that connect businesses with untapped talent.

Participants in these programmes often face multiple barriers to employment, including health issues, caring responsibilities, previous offending history, or insufficient skills and training.

But skills providers can work closely with employers to optimise their recruitment strategies to engage a more diverse range of potential employees.

Building a socially conscious recruitment model

Encouraging job applications from the widest possible sources creates a talent pool, rather than the talent puddle that businesses often select from due to overly narrow search parameters.

When developing a socially conscious recruitment approach, employers benefit from access to diverse skills and perspectives, which can support with driving innovation and productivity.

Many economically inactive individuals have substantial work experience in related fields. With targeted upskilling, they can quickly become valuable team members, bringing soft skills – reliability, communication, teamwork – that complement technical training.

Investment in these workers fosters loyalty and establishes a sustainable talent pipeline. An individual with no relevant electrical qualifications, skills or experience can be fully trained as a smart meter engineer within 12 weeks.

Despite the clear benefits, several obstacles prevent employers from fully embracing this approach.

Unconscious bias in recruitment processes remains prevalent, with many employers unwittingly favouring candidates from similar backgrounds or with traditional career paths.

Many firms also have short-term cost concerns that often overshadow the long-term benefits associated with initial investments in upskilling economically inactive workers, while inflexible workplace practices can exclude talented individuals with caring responsibilities or health conditions.

But skills providers can support employers to overcome these hurdles through designing bespoke training models or redesigning processes.

Specialist partnerships

Skills providers function as vital intermediaries between employers and potential employees. They understand businesses’ requirements and help develop both recruitment and upskilling strategies while identifying prospective candidates through community channels and job centres.

Tailored training programmes

Collaborations between skills providers and employers can strengthen programmes specifically designed to bridge skills gaps by considering how to accommodate the unique challenges these workers might face.

Supportive onboarding

Many economically inactive individuals encounter barriers beyond skills gaps. Skills providers can support employers to implement flexible working arrangements and comprehensive support systems that help these workers transition successfully into sustainable employment.

Clear progression pathways

Establishing visible career progression routes demonstrates to new recruits that they have a future within the organisation. This approach enhances retention and maximises return on training investment.

Creating lasting change

The challenge extends beyond simply filling current vacancies. What’s required is a fundamental shift in how businesses conceptualise talent acquisition and development – a shift that places social responsibility at its core.

Skills providers can be a central cog in this mission by providing tailored support to those businesses and ensure they consider the bigger picture in their recruitment strategies.

We’re redefining career opportunities for SEND learners

It’s a shocking figure but nationally just 5.1 per cent of adults with a learning disability known to social care find paid employment according to Department of Health and Social Care, highlighting the challenge faced by SEND young people when they leave education.

Since Harrison College was founded in Doncaster in 2019, that statistic has been a motivating force in developing a unique learning programme to equip students with the skills they need to flourish in the next stages of their lives.

From the minute students arrive their individual needs are assessed and met, which is something not always prevalent in mainstream schools.

As a former head of sixth form, I witnessed firsthand what was going on. What I saw inspired me to found Harrison College as a pioneering institution dedicated to providing specialist post-16 education for students with autism and special educational needs.

No limits on potential

With a focus on business, enterprise and employability skills, staff are now dedicated to unlocking the potential of every student. We ensure they are equipped for a prosperous future.

We place no limits on what can be achieved, regardless of a learner’s background or starting point. The college’s vision is to inspire learners to do more, learn more and become more, fostering a community where learners can thrive and exceed expectations.

Harrison College offers a curriculum tailored to the needs of its students, emphasising business, enterprise, and essential skills for work. This approach not only prepares students for the workforce. It also instils confidence and independence.

The eight essential skills they learn are listening, speaking, problem solving, creativity, staying positive, aiming high, leadership and teamwork. Each skill is broken down into 16 steps across four main stages – beginner, intermediate, advanced and mastery. This structured approach allows individuals to progress from basic to advanced levels in each area.

This learning programme has been able to thrive because of the dynamic, long-standing partnerships we have cultivated across a wide range of industries, from healthcare and construction to finance, retail and even the world of horse racing. Learners have accessed roles such as purchase leger clerk, customer service advisor, robotics engineer and warehouse operative at Genuit Group and in business administration support roles at Doncaster Chamber of Commerce.

Partnership work

As a result the college has built a robust and diverse ecosystem of employer collaborators who are committed to inclusion, innovation and impact.

Through bespoke internships, project-based learning and collaborative problem-solving tasks, employers work hand-in-hand with the college to provide meaningful, not tokenistic, opportunities, for young people with SEND.

They are involved in everything from business development and customer service to digital innovation and health care strategy. Our learners are not only exposed to the inner workings of these industries. They are contributing to them.

These partnerships are symbiotic. Employers gain access to a fresh, enthusiastic talent pool often brimming with creativity, attention to detail and out-of-the-box thinking.

In return, our learners benefit from genuine workplace exposure, mentorship and long-term employment or apprenticeship offers.

Overcoming financial barriers, building partnerships and even recovering from theft has required incredible resilience and adaptability.

The development of a skills-based curriculum that directly responds to labour market demands has been a bold move. It challenges traditional educational norms but ultimately equips students with real-world competencies.

What stands out most is the unwavering belief in the students and the way that the college’s values shape everyday operations. It’s not just about education; it’s about fostering confidence, independence, and opportunity.

This enterprise is about helping shape a future where businesses and communities are stronger because they are more inclusive. It’s a blueprint for how the system could, and should, work for young people with SEND. By aligning education with employability and ability with opportunity, the college is proving that the right support doesn’t just change lives. It builds futures.

How professional short courses are shaping FE’s future

FE colleges face growing pressure to help students move more quickly into jobs, and short, professional courses (or micro-credentials) offer a practical way to support that. 

This heralds a change in the market for colleges such as College of West Anglia, catering both for 16-18-year-olds and adults needing to balance work, home life and upskilling/re-skilling.

Short courses are flexible, easy to build into existing programmes and focused on the skills employers want. They also appeal to a wider range of learners, from adults retraining to younger students wanting more than academic results.

This shift is shaped both by employer demand and government reforms such as the lifelong learning entitlement and local skills improvement plans, placing a stronger focus on employability. Professional courses based on best practice originally developed by the government – like ITIL for IT management and PRINCE2 for project management – complement this agenda, helping colleges deliver better learner outcomes.

For example, Blackpool and Fylde College – as part of consolidating its business school offering and expanding its client base in the healthcare, local authority, defence and small business sectors – has added both tutor-led and self-paced PRINCE2 courses to its portfolio.

The demand that the college is seeing for project management skills means it is responding to the wider skills agenda and providing something that enhances leadership and management practice. 

And with so much uncertainty in FE, short courses allow the college to be more agile, reaching learners online in the North West beyond its Blackpool base and delivering income cost effectively with low risk.

Employer requirements 

Employers are rethinking what they value, with practical skills, problem solving and real-world experience often judged more important than academic background alone. And colleges are adapting to meet this demand. 

Many now work directly with employers to shape courses that match skills needs, while government policy encourages stronger links between education and the labour market, with a focus on retraining, progression and routes into work.

In the College of West Anglia’s case, including ITIL among its IT and computing courses and certifications has had a dual impact on the college’s learner and employer community, in a geographical area experiencing digital poverty and needing better social mobility.

The college innovated by embedding ITIL into its existing T-level in digital support. It wanted students to be useful during their entire employer placement, and mixing Cisco networking, ITIL and practical skills with the T-level prepared them for the work they would do if employed.

Placing some of the T-level student cohort with global employers has given them a real-world taste of future work – and their added usefulness has led to interest in employing them full-time when the course is finished. 

Transferring professional practice  

Professional courses help strengthen what colleges offer, as they are based on real workplace practice; using the same tools, language and methods experienced and qualified professionals use every day. 

This makes the learning more relevant and – as the experience of College of West Anglia students shows – gives young learners early exposure to the expectations of working environments.

For learners, it is not just about knowledge. These courses help build confidence and critical thinking through applied learning. Students engage with real scenarios and case studies, gaining skills they can use immediately.

Taking on a professional qualification alongside a main course of study also signals something important. It shows commitment and initiative, telling employers that the student is serious about their development and future career.

For colleges, it provides skills and competencies without needing to redesign the whole curriculum – adding recognised value and supporting goals around progression and employability.

It’s not if AI will change FE, it’s how boldly we shape it

July is typically the time for many of us in the education and skills space where we process results and focus on getting our learners and apprentices to their next destination, whether that’s within education or employment.

For many of us AI has begun to deliver efficiencies within our processes and also challenges with plagiarism (although that’s always been an issue) and the sharing of live examination questions and answers in real time. However, it’s also a time to reflect and look at how we might do things differently – and why.

As the UK positions itself as a global leader in artificial intelligence, the further education (FE) sector finds itself at a pivotal crossroads. The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, published earlier this year and the industrial strategy outlined a bold vision: to embed AI across public services, boost economic growth, and transform how people learn and work. But what does this mean for vocational education, and how can FE providers rise to the challenge?

AI is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s a present-day disruptor in a long line of disruption. For many years, the use of a ball point pen was frowned upon. From adaptive learning platforms to automated assessments, AI is reshaping how learners and apprentices engage with content; and how awarding organisations design it and educators deliver it. For vocational learners and apprentices, this gives us all the chance to open up new possibilities.

Can we create personalised learning pathways tailored to individual strengths and career goals and give them the ability to learn in a way that best enables them to reach their potential? For neurodiverse learners and apprentices this could be a gamechanger.

We’re already seeing the growth of AI-powered simulations for hands-on training in fields like healthcare, engineering, and digital media. We could do so much more to build mathematical skills with the right investment and imagination.

It also gives us the ability to provide real-time feedback and support which benefits educators in looking at their training and approaches and gives meaningful feedback to learners and apprentices, as well as potentially reducing barriers for neurodiverse and disadvantaged learners. It was good to note the industrial strategy backs this transformation with initiatives like TechFirst, a £187 million programme to bring AI and digital skills into classrooms and communities.

Despite the aspiration, the UK faces a significant AI skills shortage. The government has called for expanded education pathways into AI, including through FE and apprenticeships and not just higher education. This shift demands that we upskill all of us involved in designing and delivering education and skills, including employers, to confidently use and teach AI tools. We also need curriculum reform to embed digital literacy and data fluency across subjects. Hopefully this will be reflected within the curriculum and assessment review. Importantly learners and apprentices need to understand when to use AI, the risks involved and the need to interpret the information in a meaningful way – including accepting that it’s not always right (eh Grok!).

We also need to be able to modify qualification content and assessment at a quicker pace than we do currently, ensuring content is up to date and relatable. Stronger employerpartnerships will helpto align training with evolving industry needs, although employers also need investment into understanding AI.

We know the government is investing in training 7.5 million workers in AI skills by 2030 through industry partnerships, expanding apprenticeships and modular learning, including skills bootcamps and higher technical qualifications and creating AI growth zones and regional adoption hubs to support local innovation. But AI must not widen existing inequalities. As FE institutions embrace tech-driven learning, they must also champion inclusive design, mental health support and flexible access. Micro-credentials, hybrid models and modular qualifications can help learners of all ages and backgrounds thrive. It’s important that the industrial strategy’s lifelong learning entitlement, launching in 2027, will help people upskill and retrain throughout their careers with the right support and guidance.

However, that’s two years away. The FE sector has a unique opportunity to lead the UK’s AI revolution – not just by teaching technical skills, but by reframing education itself. That means looking to embed green and digitalskills into every vocational pathway. We need to look more at supporting dual professionalism, where educators combine industry expertise with pedagogical excellence. And we need to drive policy innovation, especially around funding, qualifications, and workforce development.

As we look ahead to the next academic year and beyond, the question isn’t whether AI will transform FE but how boldly we choose to shape that transformation.

The silent chorus: When teachers’ secret romances turn tragic

There is still a love that dare not speak its name. Or, rather, one that everyone else will avoid talking about when the people involved step into the staffroom. That unspoken love lies hidden somewhere in the murky world of the workplace dalliance. 

Some such romances have all the innocence and purity of the students’ own fledgling relationships. I have seen young teacher couples gradually getting together while addressing each other formally in front of students. It has all been incredibly sweet. You can bet their classes noticed and glowed. And I have also seen other, older couples, beaten by life more than a bit and bruised by past broken hearts and hurts, slowly drawing close enough to allow themselves another last cautious start. My unalloyed best wishes have gone with them into their shared sunset. 

But there is a darker side to work relationships too, which I am sure is common to every workplace in the world where people with hormones and libidos work side-by-side. All of us with eyes to see will have seen it many times over. There can be something deeply unsavoury and unsettling for those of us standing on the sidelines, a strange and silent chorus who slink in the shadows and watch events unfold, unable to warn ahead of time of the car-crash we can all see waiting ahead. The Chorus are supposed to speak, to forewarn, to see all. This Chorus, however, do indeed see all but are unable to say anything at all. So we simply spy the dices’ roll and then watch as the fires burn and the towers inevitably fall. 

Many modern colleges are filled with glass. Receptions and atriums are open and visible. Classroom doors contain windows and classes can be seen from corridors. In a way, the modern college is a sort of panopticon. Everything can be seen. Or almost everything.

What is hard to avoid and harder still to describe is how very visual a teacher’s professional life is. Students watch you. Managers observe you. The world keeps its eye on you. You spend lessons putting on a show. Teachers are entertainers and academics at one and the same time, jollying things along to keep the learners’ focus sharp and keep their interest up. You are there to be seen. Until you have taught, it is impossible to know quite how much the students see of you. The students’ eyes see it all. Mercilessly so, sometimes. We, by contrast, can be blind.

Sometimes, though, we watch it all unfold. We see one unable to resist being adored. And one who wants much more. Late evenings follow behind locked office doors. Then, predictably, the surreptitious attraction sours. Sense prevails. On one side, at least. And regret puts paid to passion. So we, the silent wide-eyed Chorus, watch her withdraw. We see him plead in return. But she does not turn. And then we see his rage. And his mighty sulk. Then comes scorn. It is all played out on the college stage. We watch him seek some semblance of power if that is all that is left for him to have. They do not know that we know. But we see it all. So they stand somehow naked before us all now, secrets exposed and inner selves sadly revealed. In technicolour tawdry detail.

We silent members of the Chorus can see more which we don’t say, too. We can see through our windows up to the top floor where the lights in the support staff offices glow. We can see there the door of the head of HR. We can see where this might all lead. But what can a Chorus do when their warnings have not been heeded, when their song has not been heard? Then the Chorus becomes Cassandra. All that is left then is space, a vacuum. To be abhorred. That’s when tragedy stalks onto the stage and draws its dulled sword. When Fate steps into the scene. When Defeat is plucked from the jaws of short-lived Victory, Chaos severing Nike’s golden life-cord, and the one who was gifted by the gods with the chance to start again with an unaware wife who waits at home chooses instead the insane coup de grâce, the self-conflagration, the immolation of protest, the impotent bonfire of his own self-focused vanities. And we the silent Chorus turn away, afraid to see the children involved, at home and afraid as they watch their family fall.  

From EHCPs to work, our internship scheme is changing lives

During my time in my previous career as a school leader, I witnessed first-hand how students with SEND, leaving education, struggled to gain access to meaningful work, especially in fields they were passionate about. Forward2Employment was created in Medway and Kent to change their outcomes, by helping them gain employment through our supported internship programme.

This supports young people aged 16 to 24 with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) who are based in Kent and Medway.  The programme runs for 38 weeks, following a similar term structure to schools.  Each week, interns attend the workplace for four days and spend one day improving their employability and independence skills.  The aim is to support young people into paid employment by the end of the programme, either within their placement or through references and work experience added to their CV.

From humble beginnings

Forward2Employment started in 2018, with a pilot year of three interns and one job coach.  We worked closely with one business, the medical and dental supplier Henry Schein, who partnered with us during this pilot.  It was such a success that they hired many of the interns from that year’s placement and have continued to support us by taking on supported interns each year.

From this pilot, it was clear that we were onto something significant.  We expanded further, with more businesses joining to help us on our commitment to improve the chances for our young people with SEND.  The programme has grown rapidly, with the 2024-2025 cohort reaching 38 interns and being supported by eight job coaches.

We have also further expanded our provision to include a supported employment programme, where we support people aged 18-64 with SEND into employment.  This is by helping them with job searches, improve their CV, and even provide interview support. This programme is bespoke to each client, where we offer as much or as little support as needed.

Our success has been recognised with a ‘good’ rating in both our Ofsted and British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) inspections. However, the most rewarding aspect for myself and the team is the success of our supported interns and Supported Employment clients.  Since our pilot, we have seen 33 interns and Supported Employment clients gain paid employment, with more expected to achieve this by the end of this academic year.

No plain sailing

While we have seen significant success from our programmes, there have been challenges.  One of the biggest was the Covid pandemic.  During lockdown, many businesses limited the number of workers due to social distancing which meant that many of our interns had to stay at home.  However, my brilliant team ensured that the interns continued to gain experiences by using their hobbies to improve their work and independence skills, as well as strengthening their CVs and helping them apply for jobs.  Fortunately, when lockdowns were lifted most businesses we worked with continued to support us and take on supported interns.

Throughout my years in education I have seen how people with SEND can be stereotyped, and this became even clearer when starting Forward2Employment. When we began reaching out to businesses and even some young people, there was a belief that they could only achieve work in specific areas, such as labouring.  An important role of Forward2Employment has been to debunk these beliefs and encourage businesses and interns to expand their horizons regarding what people with SEND can achieve.

We’re in this together

While there is still a way to go to get more people to understand that individuals with SEND can achieve their goals (sometimes with just a little bit of help), we can see that the narrative is changing.  Schools and colleges are encouraging their students to dream about their careers, and businesses are starting to promote inclusivity in their workforces to include people with SEND.  We hope to see this expand further and are excited to see where Forward2Employment goes on its journey to improve the outcomes for people with SEND.

All aboard the cruise industry for our new wave of employer engagement

One thing I absolutely love about education is the opportunity to inspire our students, opening their minds to what could be next after college. We want them to think “Why not me?” as they explore career options and leave us not only prepared for the future, but excited by it.

Employer engagement is a key part of this, working across business and industry to give our students hands-on experiences, mentorship, and potential routes into careers they’ll love. Our hair and beauty team work with Toni & Guy, for example, where students gain work experience, attend workshops at their academy and get backstage access at London Fashion Week. Similarly, our motorsport vehicle maintenance and repair course prepares and inspects a real racing car, with students attending track days at circuits like Brands Hatch. This work is always collaborative, industry-responsive and transformative for learners.

The springboard

Our latest initiative, with the cruise industry, is close to my heart. I’ve recently returned from another unforgettable trip. And I’ve always felt this was a sector full of opportunity – not just on board, but across the expansive network of shore-based roles that keep the industry moving.

I was so excited when Edwina and Matthew Lonsdale at Mundy Cruising invited us to join their brilliant Cruise Career Springboard programme, which is supported by key industry figures investing in the next generation. A group of our travel and tourism students dipped their toes into a potential career in the sector, visiting five ships (from luxury liners to river vessels), hearing from industry leaders and seeing shoreside roles in action.

We had extraordinary support, which I’m so grateful for. Representatives from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and many operators including Royal Caribbean, NCL, MSC and Silversea were involved. Our students were also mentored by Jo Rzymowska, former MD and VP of Celebrity Cruises, now an inspirational speaker and non-executive director at Hays Travel. People at the top of their game shared their time and expertise. Their insights were invaluable.

Take-aways

One student told me she was surprised by how many people work behind the scenes, keeping everything running without stepping on deck. She hadn’t considered the cruise industry before, but it was now firmly on her radar. That’s the power of employer engagement. It doesn’t just inform, it inspires. Another student had a job interview with a cruise company last week and I’m excited for a positive outcome…

The course ran over nine weeks and included learners from St John Bosco College in Battersea and Itchen College in Southampton. One of its core aims was to improve diversity and inclusion in the sector, so bringing together learners from a wide range of backgrounds was key to that.

The programme ended with a final presentation, where students pitched career pathway ideas to senior professionals from the cruise industry. It tested their knowledge and boosted their confidence. The presentations were incredible, including TikTok content, photo montages from visits and reflections on personal journeys. Based on its success, we’re planning to embed the learning more formally and hope to launch a Level 4 travel and tourism qualification with a cruise pathway in the near future.

All aboard

What’s compelling about the cruise industry is its global scope and career longevity. Young people might begin on board, but often move into shoreside roles which offer more flexibility as their priorities evolve. For some, it’s a passport to see the world; for others, a gateway into logistics, operations or customer experience. Wherever their talents lie, there’s a place for them. We all know that university isn’t the right fit for everyone, especially as costs rise and job markets shift. Nescot is committed to offering a range of alternatives, from apprenticeships to direct-to-industry routes, all supported by excellent employer relations and progression routes

The Cruise Career Springboard has shown what’s possible when employers and educators work hand in hand. By exposing students to real-world careers in a structured, supportive, and aspirational way, we’re opening doors many didn’t know existed.

I’m looking forward to Nescot being part of this programme again next year. Innovative employer engagement isn’t just about employability – it’s about showing our students what’s possible and helping them believe they belong there. I’m fully on board!

What ancient runners teach us about AI and education

Technology obviously does transform society and the economy, and it obviously does make certain skills more or less valuable in the workplace.

Think about marathon-running. Ancient Greek ‘day-runners’ like Pheidippides, the original marathon runner, were a vital part of the functioning of Greek city states. Their aim was to get a message from A to B as quickly as possible, and in a world with no combustion engine or telegrams or internet, if you needed to send a message you needed a day-runner.

Nowadays that is obviously not the case. If you need to send a message to a friend 26 miles away, you’d probably send a text message. If they needed a particular physical set of documents, you still wouldn’t hire a day-runner – you’d hire a taxi driver instead.

And yet, running marathons is incredibly popular and more people run the London marathon every year than there were ever day-runners. None of them run it to courier a message. The vast majority run it for reasons of personal development. A tiny fraction do run it to gain economic benefit – not from being messengers, but from winning races and providing entertainment which spectators are willing to pay for.

The difference between ancient Greek marathon runners and today’s marathon runners is at the heart of so much confusion about AI and its role in society and education.

  • Students are baffled by teachers who want them to deliver a message via a marathon run when you could just send a text message.
  • Teachers are baffled by students who want to get a taxi round a marathon course and expect a medal at the end of it.

So partly, this confusion is about what you think the purpose of education is.

  • If you think the point of education is for students to develop their human potential, then the teacher is by definition right. In order to develop your human potential you can’t get someone or something else to do it for you!
  • If you think the point of education is to get a job, you will probably be more open to using technology in education.

Education for personal development

However good AI gets at writing, there is always going to be a personal development use case for writing which is analogous to running.

That is, even if the direct economic value of being a good writer gets completely obliterated by technology, the general life value of being able to write will remain. 

Being able to run a mile or two without getting out of breath is good for your general health and fitness, and that’s why lots of people choose to go out running even though there is no direct economic benefit in it for them. Likewise, I suspect that people will value being able to read and write complex texts even if they can’t make money out of it.

One reason I think this is because writing has so many underappreciated benefits. Often, we assume the main purpose of writing is communication, as though it works like this: I have a series of well-worked out and complete thoughts in my head; I write them down; other people can read them.

That is certainly one way we use writing, and the one that generative AI is perhaps best placed to help with. If you have a series of thoughts in your head, you can speak them into a voice memo and get AI to polish them up into a perfect paragraph or series of paragraphs. A good example is where you have a relatively simple decision to make – perhaps whether to say yes to an invitation or not – you make the decision, and then you struggle to communicate it. Generative AI can be helpful in these cases.

But there is another important function of writing which generative AI is less well placed to help with: writing helps extend working memory and is a tool for thinking. A lot of the time we don’t have complete and well-worked out thoughts in our head. It is only by writing our thoughts down that we discover the gaps and the flaws in them. “If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.”

This process is obviously important if you are doing some kind of deep academic work, but it’s still important in everyday life – if you are writing an email to friends with the logistics for a day out, or a memo to colleagues on the decisions that have to be taken at your next meeting. Generative AI might already be a better writer than you in terms of being able to quickly draft readable and error-free texts. But is it better than you at working out what you actually think?

Cars are faster than humans, but we still teach PE at school. Similarly, even if generative AI totally outstrips humans at writing, I think we will still teach it because it is a valuable tool for life.

One of the reasons I love the work of The Writing Revolution is that they explicitly make this link between thinking and writing, and design lessons and curriculum sequences that teach writing as a tool for thinking right from the start. The resources we’ve developed at No More Marking follow this approach too. 

But what about education for the job market?

Of course, personal development is not the only purpose of education. Another important purpose is to get a job, and here it would seem the advocates of generative AI are on stronger ground. If AI is going to be used extensively in the workplace, surely it should be used extensively in the classroom too?

I am not so sure. Even if you are solely concerned with the economic function of education, and even if you don’t care very much about the personal development aspect, there are still strong reasons to avoid the excessive use of generative AI in education. 

This post was originally published on the No More Marking Substack here. You can subscribe for free to read future posts in this series.

College staff scholarships announced to tackle antisemitism

At least one hundred college staff will be offered a scholarship to train up on tackling antisemitism – after the government finally awarded a delayed contract.

An ex-labour MP’s new think tank and the Union for Jewish Students (UJS) have been handed millions to develop and deliver the long-awaited Tackling Antisemitism in Education (TAE) programme.

The procurement, worth around £7 million, was carried over from the Conservatives 2023 autumn statement but was put on ice in March 2024 after concerns from smaller Jewish or Holocaust education groups the format and style of the procurement favoured larger organisations.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson resumed the search after allowing the contract to be delivered by one or more suppliers last October, on the first anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks.

The TAE programme will be delivered over three years and deliver training, scholarships and the development of resources, including around the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Antisemitism scholarship for colleges

Cross-party think tank and research institute Palace Yard has won £1.5 million to develop and deliver two scholarship programmes.

Palace Yard was founded in 2022 by former Labour MP Natascha Engel who lost her North East Derbyshire seat in 2017.

Engel was previously a panel member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPG) on antisemitism and ex-deputy speaker in the House of Commons. She was also formerly chair of the APPG on youth affairs and a trustee of UK Youth Parliament.

Around 1,500 staff are to be offered scholarships – half of which will be from schools and colleges while the other half will be from universities.

The Department for Education said it expects at least 13 per cent of the 750 participants from the schools and college group to be made up of college staff.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has been named as a subcontractor to recruit and engage schools, colleges and universities.

Partakers will be able to take a domestic “study visit” to learn about the Jewish faith and will get involved in role-play discussions and seminars on how to tackle antisemitism in their respective education settings.

Palace Yard will also set up an “action learning network”, where scholarship participants can share resources.

The contract documents added the training should not replicate content already available through existing Holocaust education.

“It’s important that the TAE scholarship focus is to actively tackle antisemitism today,” it said.

Jewish student union to ensure ‘smooth rollout‘

The UJS has been given a £1.1 million budget, aimed to increase the confidence in student union staff in recognising and tackling antisemitism and to inform university policies.

The UJS, which represents 9,000 Jewish students in the UK and Ireland, will have to collaborate with school, college and religious representatives to ensure a “smooth rollout” of the programme.

The union will have to deliver a minimum of 600 face-to-face sessions, at least 80 per cent of universities must receive at least six sessions. 

The training programme, which is expected to start on September 1, will involve developing strategies on how to respond to antisemitic abuse, as well as learning to facilitate “difficult” discussions on Palestine-Israel and helping students to stop mis- and dis-information.

UJS has also been asked to prioritise universities with incidents of antisemitism.

Last year, more than a dozen student encampments were set up at UK universities to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which the UJS reportedly said at the time created a “hostile and toxic atmosphere” on campus for Jewish students.

DfE to approve all content

DfE has set up a TAE content advisory group made up of up to five unnamed people plus the department itself to approval all content in the next six weeks. 

Government officials will have ultimate sign-off, but the content advisory group will have to consider the department’s existing quality assurance process for material for the Educate Against Hate (EAH) website, rather than replicate it.

Within a month of signing the contract, the suppliers will have to produce a detailed delivery plan, which is subject to DfE approval.

Meanwhile, the DfE has published another procurement for a tackling Antisemitism in Education Innovation Fund this summer.

It intends to hand out £4 million worth of grants to facilitate small-scale initiatives and larger, strategic projects.

A market engagement event on the proposal is taking place on July 23.

Palace Yard and UJS were approached for comment.

NUS declined to comment.